The Traveling Paintings

Yesterday, my oldest son stopped by for a while; when he left he took my huge "Patty Hearst as Tania" painting to Storage Locker #102, where it joins three of my other favorite pieces of artwork, paintings by my two youngest daughters.

They await me settling into a more permanent living situation, where I will be able to display this art once again.

The Tania lithograph has inspired many conversations with visitors over the years -- it's been with me for 43 years now, since Rolling Stone left it behind in the big move from San Francisco to New York in the summer of 1977.

This painting was on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1975.

My former colleague, Ben Fong-Torres, wrote a song about that story and performed it at least once in a nightclub when I was in attendance. 

Here is his memory:
"I wrote the songs for amusement; this was decades before radio shows concocted and aired parody songs every morning. But at Rolling Stone magazine in the Seventies, I continued my little hobby, and at least two songs were performed. One, to the tune of Bob Dylan's Hurricane (The Ballad of Reuben Carter), celebrated the magazine's big scoop in 1975 on the Patricia Hearst/SLA kidnap and aftermath. I vaguely recall doing the song, with real musicians behind me, on a couple of occasions, including a nightclub, the Boarding House:

Doorbell rang out in the Berkeley night
Into the apartment house they burst
Knocked down Steven Weed with hardly a fight
And made their getaway with Patty Hearst!

Here comes the story of the Rolling Stone
Of David Weir and of Howard Kohn
They found the trail of Patty Hearst
And they wrote about it first."

***

Three news updates:

* The House of Representatives for the first time ever has voted for statehood for Washington, D.C. This is a move that is long overdue, IMHO. Having lived in the area, I can attest that D.C. is a state in any sense that matters.

Besides, what alternative makes sense? That our capital is hosted in a colony? Give me a break.

* The administration wants to throw out the ACA/Obamacare protection for folks with pre-existing conditions. This is at a time that millions of people are relying on the ACA for health coverage, since they've lost their jobs.

Give me another break.

* Facebook will start labeling any post that incites violence or attempts to suppress voting. 

It's about time.

***

From my position now, as a retired journalist, I have the opportunity to promote investigative stories. that come to my attention.

That's what I did yesterday in this space: "'He Played With People’s Minds': Fresno Priest Left a Trail of Sexual Abuse Allegations," by Alexandra Hall for KQED News.

This piece is a reminder that even with the pandemic and the marches for justice and the election campaigns and everything else going on, journalists like Alex are working to hold powerful people accountable when they abuse that power.

Please read her article and think about the work of people like her, who are sometimes falsely attacked as "enemies of the people."

In fact, they are the Friends of the People at a time when the people need all the friends they can get.

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